The Shadow Killer
by lemonygoodness1998
Summary: Leo can hardly live with herself after being an assassin. But going rogue means going into hiding, and where would an assassin feel more at home than the Survey Corps? But will Leo, now a "boy" named Joel, be able to keep up her charade when a certain Corporal leaves her both fuming and breathless? And, most importantly, will Levi come between her and happiness, or will he be it?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Leo's POV

I wondered again why I had chosen this path. Not why I joined the Survey Corps, I was glad I had done that, but the other thing. Why, instead of just cutting and dying my hair and taking a new name, maybe acting more feminine or something, I had chosen to pretend to be a man.

"Cadet!" Erd barked. "Would you care to explain your presence in the girl's shower room?"

Goddamn it.

"Would you care to explain yours, sir?" I nearly squeaked. He clenched a fist and ground his teeth before answering.

"I won't say anything if you don't," he said finally. I nodded fervently and left, clothes thankfully on and short hair dripping wet.

I'd asked myself the same question nearly every day for the past two years I'd been in the military, but was given a stark reminder when I saw a wanted poster two days earlier. I was a wanted criminal, an assassin gone rogue, and I would be executed if caught.

"Hey, Joel!" Jeager called when I entered my barrack. Even if I didn't feel safe in the men's shower I felt more than comfortable in the men's barracks; I had always been more comfortable around guys than girls. I lifted a hand in recognition of the greeting. "There's a game of poker going on. You want in?" I now noticed that he sat in front of the beds in a circle of boys, in the center of which lay several piles of checker pieces and cards. I smiled slightly but held up my hand again and shook my head.

I tried not to talk too much. Though I worked to have a more masculine appearance, my voice was still stuck in that feminine alto range from which boys my age had plummeted several months ago.

"You sure?" My quietness was often interpreted as shyness, so Jeager made every effort to include me in social activities. I thought the thought was sweet, but I was always wary to avoid any situation where I might be roped into talking. Too many risks involved.

I walked gingerly across the circle and jumped onto my bed, a bottom bunk for quick escape, and lay on my side facing the wall. I pulled the blanket up around me and tried to sleep, but the conversation that was taking place in the ring of poker players kept me intrigued, not to mention wide awake.

"Did you hear they've got a suspect for the Shadow Killer?" Connie announced.

"They do?"

"Yeah. Some guy named Arnie Templeton. Said he's gonna get a fair trial, but I doubt it. They never give murderers fair trials in the capital."

"How did they find him?" Arlert questioned.

"Police sketches matched his face," answered Connie. "They took eye-witness testimony and compiled different descriptions of the guy."

"That's never seemed right to me," Kirstein interjected. "Police sketches and all. Who's to say the witness wasn't just making it all up? I fold." He placed his hand of cards face-down on the floor to a chorus of chiding remarks.

"What if the Shadow Killer isn't a guy at all?" Jeager suggested. I had to stop myself from stiffening up at that one. "I mean, all the reports say that he moved with such grace, and the guy was pretty slim, so it's a possibility."

"I guess so, but I don't know if a girl could do that. With Titans it's different because they're not human, but wouldn't some kind of maternal instinct come into play with humans?" Kirstein asked. I made a big show of stretching to "accidentally" kick the guy in the head. Sexist pig.

The whole room laughed until Corporal Levi opened the door to tell us it was lights out. That night I slept slightly more peacefully than other nights, though my dreams were still peppered with the images of those I had killed.

That was part of the reason I had gone rogue. I could


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Leo's POV

In addition to those peppered images of my victims invading my dreams, another figure appeared, a figure who was always present – a shadowy figure whose face I never saw. He may have been shadowy, but he was far from menacing; he always came to my dreams in the darkest moments and, like a candle, lit up the dark by his presence. Last night he had appeared as I was about to take the life of Klyde Thompson, the first man I had ever killed, and killed me instead. I had awoken in the middle of the night with a cold sweat clinging like a plastic film to my body, but with a significant feeling of peace. For just a moment, I thought I was in my dream, that I had died instead of Thompson. When I realized I had been only dreaming I could barely breathe from the guilt. I would rather be dead than have made that first kill.

I now knelt before a titan dummy I had "slain." A large chunk of its neck lay in all its bulbous brown glory beside the mannequin, and I was panting. It was my twentieth "kill" of the day. I had no idea why the Corporal was making me continue like this. I stood and hobbled pathetically to the next dummy, shot my grappling hooks into a nearby tree, and sliced through its neck. When I landed I noticed Corporal Levi striding to my position and looking down at my once again kneeling form.

"Oi, Cadet," he said to get my attention. "Are you interested as to why I made you go on like that?" I nodded weakly. He knelt beside me. "I wanted to see if you could break the record. Do you know what the record is?" I shook my head, too breathless to even think of responding in words. "Twenty-one 'kills' as of right now. The record you just broke was seventeen."

I broke the record? They keep records?

He stood up and began to walk away. "And don't think just because you're the new record-holder means you're skipping out on laps."

The entire company held some sort of party-like gathering for me during lunch. I was awarded with a small slab of butter, which I promptly melted into my potato. It tasted heavenly compared to the flakiness of my normally unseasoned ones.

"Good work, Joel!" Jeager said as he thumped me hard on the back. I winced. "Sorry!" I held up my hand to show it was okay.

After having broken the record I was made to run laps with the other Cadets until I was at the point of collapse. I was sore all over, but it was the good kind of soreness, the kind that let you know you had accomplished something.

After lunch the Cadets had free time to wander about the castle or grounds as they so chose. I so chose to spend that particular afternoon sleeping until dinner, so I placed my plate and fork on the ledge for the dishwashers and went to the men's barrack.

Levi's POV

I had to find that Cadet. I had debated commending him on his performance earlier that day, and had opted against it, but now regretted the decision. I had been commended when I made the record of seventeen, so he should be commended for his record of twenty-one.

I searched all over the castle for the brat. At free time I would always see him outside on a rock that protruded from the hillside, sketching or something. Instead, I found him asleep in his barrack, long limbs stretched out over the bed like a creature with legs too long for its body. I had to suppress a smile at the sight; he looked like a baby giraffe. But when my eyes traveled up to his face I noticed just how young he looked, still so much like a child whenever his eyes didn't contain that spark of power. He had put down on his records that he was sixteen at the time of his enlistment, but, looking at him, there was no way he could be eighteen.

I softly closed the door and walked back to my office to look at his file.


End file.
